Research

Annual bluegrass weevil damage (Photo: Katherine Diehl)

A lesser of two weevils?

February 26, 2019 By James Murphy, Ph.D., Mathew Elmore, Ph.D., Katherine H. Diehl and Albrecht M. Koppenhöfer, Ph.D.

The annual bluegrass weevil (ABW) can inflict severe damage on annual bluegrass (Poa annua) fairways, greens and collars. Because the ABW showcases a strong preference for annual bluegrass over creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera), we hypothesized that manipulating traditional insecticide programs ...

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Cool-season fairway species (Photo: Cale Bigelow)

Midwest cool-season fairway water requirements

January 31, 2019 By Cale A. Bigelow, Ph.D. and Jada Powlen, Ph.D.

Fairways are some of the largest areas of irrigated golf course turf. Although regions like the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast (where creeping bentgrass is widely used) are considered “humid,” acute drought can persist for weeks. Combine drought with water scarcity ...

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Leaf spot disease symptoms (Photo: Maria Tomaso-Peterson)

Leaf spot and dollar spot on ultradwarf bermudagrass greens

January 22, 2019 By Phillip L. Vines and Maria Tomaso-Peterson, Ph.D.

Ultradwarf bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon x C. transvaalensis) is the predominant putting green turf in the southern U.S. This grass, however, produces profuse amounts of thatch, which leads to increased disease pressure from leaf spot (Figure 1), caused by Bipolaris cynodontis, ...

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Visible differences in turf injury at seven days after application. (Photo: Ross Braun, Ph.D.)

Ryegrass injury and recovery from human insect repellent

January 14, 2019 By Jared Hoyle, Ph.D., Ross Braun, Ph.D. and Peyton E. South

Superintendents commonly observe turfgrass injury from human insect repellent (bug spray) overspray on human skin and clothing. The injury most commonly occurs as an outline shape of unaffected footprints with damaged surrounding turf. This injury results in unacceptable turf quality. ...

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Bermudagrass cover (Photos: Gregg Munshaw)

Nitrogen and sprigging rate effects on Latitude 36 bermudagrass establishment

December 17, 2018 By Gregg Munshaw, Ph.D., Jeffrey S. Beasley, Ph.D., Christian Baldwin, Ph.D., Justin Q. Moss, Ph.D., Kenneth L. Cropper, Ph.D., H. Wayne Philley, Chrissie A. Segars, Ph.D. and Barry R. Steward, Ph.D.

Bermudagrass (Cynodon sp.) is widely grown throughout the southern United States for recreational and aesthetic purposes. Bermudagrass provides a heat- and drought-tolerant turfgrass that exhibits vigorous growth and good wear tolerance. Bermudagrass also is popular on golf courses because of ...

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Dark purple fairway due to Meyer zoysiagrass seedhead production (Photo: Aaron Patton)

Suppressing Meyer zoysiagrass seedheads

November 12, 2018 By Aaron J. Patton, Ph.D., Jared Hoyle, Ph.D., Zac Reicher, Ph.D. and Mike Harrell, Ph.D.

Zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp.) is on about 25,000 acres of golf course turf in the United States. It provides golfers with an excellent ball lie when used in fairways, and its wear and divot tolerance, low nutritional requirement and tolerance to ...

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